Abstract

We present the results of an AES, XPS, and LEED study of the reaction of oxide and contaminant overlayers on the CdTe(110) surface with atomic hydrogen. Exposure of an oxidizedsurface to a flux of atomic hydrogen produced by ‘‘cracking’’ ambient molecular hydrogen on a hot tungsten filament results in a rapid, quantitative removal of the oxide overlayer with substrate temperatures as low as 300 K to produce a stoichiometric surface free of contaminants which has sufficient surface order to produce a sharp (1×1) LEEDpattern.